Valiant - Piccioni da combattimento

Oh boy, Disney has their hands full with this one... a British animated and voiced film about World War Two with death, destruction and rude jokes. Oh, lets hope they don't cut the living hell out of this thing.

This is the story of Valiant, a smaller than normal pigeon, who wants to join up with the Royal Carrier Pigeon Service. With the help of Bugsy, a con artist pigeon he accidentally saves, he manages to trick his way into the service. Training has barely begun when they are rushed off to France to bring back an important message. There Valiant, Bugsy and his squad come face to face with the evil falcon's who'd like nothing better than to make them lunch.

A brief 75 minutes long (reports of 109 minutes must be wrong) this is a good send up of World War Two conventions. We have hateful Nazi falcons (the leader is played evilly by Tim Curry); the do or die mission; Mom's tearful goodbye; Edith Piaf on the gramophone, French resistance, balmy Brits (two of which are John Cleese and John Hurt); heroic sacrifice and on and on and on.

The voice cast is excellent and any Anglophiles out there will want to see this for the great voice cast which includes Ewan McGregor as Valiant, who is a wonderful hero, Ricky Gervais as Bugsy who is hysterical as the slob friend, and then add in Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Curry, Cleese, Hurt and many others others bringing life to the birds on screen. The whole cast is fun to listen to.

The humor is a wide net of British style humor from puns to fart jokes to clever spoof to just about anything. In its way its completely different than any typical American (ie.Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks) film. Its not broad American humor, its quiet British humor with slips into slapstick. Its a Britcom versus sitcom.

Technically this film is a marvel with stuff that will put Disney to shame, and make Pixar and Dreamworks work harder. There are some beautifully rendered sequences, in particular the numerous action scenes. WOW.

The problem here is the pacing which is a tad slow. It un-spools like a British World War Two film from the period. Its not bad but it might prove taxing to American audiences who are used to faster paced comedy. However once they go to France on the mission it picks up nicely with chase after chase.

A friend asked if it was similar to Chicken Run, sort of. Both are Britsh war spoofs, but the style of humor is different and you don't have Mel Gibson bending it in the direction of American nonsense. Chicken Run is probably better but its hard to say fairly since I need to see Valiant again.

Certainly not the be all and end all I do recommend it, especially if you like British style humor.

Valiant, in my opinion is a very good movie, that only suffers from being too short and sometimes the humour falls flat. I'm 16, and I think it is miles better than Doogal. The animation actually was very good, colourful and smooth a majority of the time. In particular the action sequences, beautifully done. And the thing I liked most about the story was that it was based on a true story. Lots of people didn't like it, because they felt that the subject matter was uninspired. Can I just say, that the birds looked real to me, and that's what you want in an animation. The script was very funny at times, but I think the bathroom humour got a little too much. It did actually raise a lot of laughs for me. What impressed me most was that most of the jokes were visual. The story was well written and went along at a reasonable pace. The highlight of the movie was the chase of Valiant by Von Talon. The other problem I had was that the overall movie was too short. But I have to mention George Fenton's music, it was outstanding. As for the voice talents, what a talented cast. Ewen Macgregor was likable as the hero Valiant, and the actor even put some of his earnestness into the character. Ricky Gervais was Ricky Gervais, but this is one of the few times when I found him sidesplittingly funny. Tim Curry voiced Von Talon with such menace, that I found it difficult to recognise him, in a positive way (he stole the show for me). John Cleese was hilarious, that I didn't hear everything he said from laughing so much. Jim Broadbent, likewise, and he also gave a dynamic performance that totally suited his character. Very good movie, well recommended! 8/10. Bethany Cox

I'm beginning to find a lot of these CG animated movies terribly formulaic (Magic Roundabout's horrendous storyline a case in point)so this movie made a refreshing change when I took my 3 sons to see a preview. Not overly long, basing the story around Homing Pigeons used in WW11 was a great idea and really appealed to the boys. The characters were fun and well voiced (parents can play a game of 'guess the actor')and there were some genuinely laugh out loud moments. Not quite the emotional pull of 'Finding Nemo' but that wasn't the point. To sum it up, my 11 year-old said. 'Great, Mum. About the war without being too violent for my little brothers and not too babyish for me.' Recommended.

Although this may not tickle the fancy of non-Brits, Valiant is a light-hearted comical little tale (it's quite short) of an even littler pigeon with a big personality who wants to be in the RHSP as a wartime carrier pigeon. The characters are well defined and work together well with a generously simple plot. Bugsy (Ricky Gervais) is hilarious and most of the voices provided were perfect, although it would have been better if I didn't have a constant mental image of the actors while looking at their animated aliases.

Occasionally there are moments of dialogue or actions that are quite obviously meant to be funny and aren't but these are generally glazed over by silliness. A must-see for animation fans/Brits, but perhaps more laughable for the younger generation among us.

'Valiant' proudly invalidates the conventional assumption that pigeons are stupid and very limited animals. In this imaginative and fast-paced British animated adventure directed by Gary Chapman, pigeons are heroic creatures stopping at nothing to serve and support their country during the hard times it faced back in the early 1940's, during World War II. The outcome of the dramatic war literally "lies in the wings" of the pigeons, as they help the Allied Forces develop strategic plans by bringing them confidential messages from the French resistance.

Meet Valiant (voiced by Ewan McGregor), a little, hyperactive and vivacious pigeon from the British countryside, whose big time dream is to join the highly esteemed Royal Pigeon Service, a military unit training volunteers as "pilots" and message carriers to facilitate communication between the Allied troops. After reassuring his worried mother that he will do just fine out there on the battlefield, Valiant leaves his home for the RPS recruitment office in London, where he immediately makes the accidental acquaintance of a chubby and clumsy street pigeon named Bugsy (Rick Gervais).

After enrolling and meeting the rest of the team, Valiant and Bugsy are brought to a military base where they have to put up with a merciless Pigeon Training Sergeant (Jim Broadbent), who guides them through a hard-hitting and strenuous training. Although it seems at first as if Valiant were not qualified for the job, his strong determination nevertheless provides him with the required strength to keep on. Soon after follows the day of his first big mission, which consists out of picking up an important message from the French. Only, none of the new "pilots", including Valiant, are fully trained yet to embark the dangerous operation…

Although it may at first sound like your ordinary 3-D animated family film about a bunch of cgi-animals trying the impossible to save the world, 'Valiant' is quite a different, and above all, new experience. It is solid fun for everyone, and finally an animated action-comedy again that provides enough innovation and an appealing, never-before-seen premise. First of all, the story is set in 1944, shortly before the end of the war, which is rather an unusual period of time for a computer-generated kid-flick. Second, the film also creatively emphasizes on how pigeons helped the armies establish better communication with partners or allies.

Also, 'Valiant' clearly diverts us from our standard, negative view of pigeons: the plot shows that a pigeon is not that dumb an animal after all. The "freedom" pigeons in the movie are smart and speedy, courageous and hilarious. The hero of course, is little Valiant, who works very hard to become really big. He values friendship and teamwork, and always comes up with a clever plan when the situation abruptly aggravates. And the situation does indeed get tricky, because shortly after Valiant and co. fetch the targeted message, they are followed by General Von Talon, a deadly and vicious falcon who tries to intercept the valuable "package"…

Diversity is one of the positive words that can be used to best describe 'Valiant': from the opening on, en route for the big finish, the plot is loaded with a lot of fun, suspenseful twists and a globally refreshing sense of humor. The pigeon training, for instance, is a first highlight: instead of using miniature iron weights, Valiant and his compatriots use apples. As dormitories, they use tin cans, and in order to defend themselves against potential enemies, they are trained how to attack with their beaks. The second part of the movie features more action and suspense, as Valiant and Bugsy track down General Von Talon in order to retrieve their message and free a captured pigeon.

With its feature length of only 75 minutes, 'Valiant' is almost too short, giving us the impression that some of the sequences are a little rushed or just too easy. If Valiant for instance, got into more threatening trouble, the plot would have been filled with even more suspense, and some additional, intriguing complexity. Then again, the filmmakers did a very inspiring job on the character development. Besides Valiant, the little one with big plans, Bugsy is another adorable figure, since he will eventually discover that having a true friend is more important than acting on your own. Therefore, the messages are crystal clear.

Sweet faces, vibrant pursuits, an action-packed showdown between good and evil, a considerable amount of slapstick, and lots of flat-out funny dialogues and satisfying effects; these are all elements contributing to the considerable atmosphere of this overall entertaining summer movie. Furthermore, at the end of the screening I attended, I heard a little spectator yelling: "Mom, Valiant was the best one, and the coolest!" Considering that such films indeed intend on turning their main characters the heroes of the audience, I'd say: pigeon mission accomplished! (Grade: B-)